Star-Spotting mass experiment off to a sparkling start

The Star-Spotting Experiment, this year’s citizen science project in connection with the European Researchers’ Night events in Sweden, is now well underway. Members of the public across Sweden are helping scientists to measure light pollution by counting stars in the sky and recording the data in a specially-designed app. In an interview with Lena Söderström, Project Manager at VA, we find out how the project is progressing and which other countries will be joining the project too.

Behind the headlines: Results of VA study of Swedish science journalists

Healthy food, the climate and immigration. These are the three research areas that stir up the most debate amongst the general public, according to Swedish science journalists. Twelve journalists were interviewed to investigate what influences their reporting of scientific issues in a new VA report.

Forthcoming activities

VA will be running its first pop-up Science Shop on 1 July during Almedalen Week in Visby, Sweden. Throughout the day, researchers from Swedish research organisations will be encouraging visitors to stop by the pop-up Science Shop and discover how real world problems that they encounter in their daily lives and work can be turned into concrete research questions, and ultimately, new knowledge and solutions. Each year around 40,000 people from academia, politics and civil society descend on the island of Gotland in Sweden to discuss a wide range of current societal issues in a packed programme of seminars, debates and events. 

The EU ORION Open Science project has just launched a new call for collaborative co-creation projects. Funding will be awarded to activities that contribute to open up the way we conduct, organise or fund fundamental life sciences research, which are the objectives of the ORION project. The deadline for applications is 30 September and full details can be found here.

As part of the EU BLOOM project, VA will be participating in a bioeconomy workshop at the Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, Finland on 8 July. The workshop will explore the role of communication and education to promote changes in purchase habits and increase the adoption of bio-based products.

VA will be running a workshop on Science Shops at the International Transdisciplinarity Conference on 10 September in Gothenburg, Sweden as part of the EU SciShops project. The workshop will present how Science Shops can be an effective vehicle for tackling societal challenges through collaboration at community level and look at different types of models based on real-life examples.

VA’s recent activities

Does the public wish to be involved in science? This was one of the key topics addressed at the annual Nordic Science Communication Forum held in April in Gothenburg. The conference included a presentation by Imran Khan, Head of Public Engagement at the Wellcome Trust in the UK, on the Wellcome Trust Global Monitor. Results from the German and Swedish Science Barometers, and the EU project ORION Open Science’s European public attitudes survey were also discussed. Read a report about the event.

The HSS University and Society in Collaboration conference in Örebro, Sweden in May provided an opportunity for VA to promote the EU SciShops project and ARCS national citizen science portal to Swedish stakeholders. In a joint workshop on Science Shops with Malmö University, VA gave an international overview of the Science Shop concept, highlighting examples of different models of Science Shops and resources and support offered by the SciShops project. Read a report about the event.

Did you know that the forest can be found in every aspect of your everyday life, from food packaging to the latest fashion? In June, VA took the opportunity to bring the forest into the suburbs of Stockholm and to talk about the bioeconomy and EU BLOOM project with visitors to Järvaveckan, a political festival that this year attracted more than 50,000 people. Read a report about the event.

VA colleagues presented a number of projects at Eusea’s European Science Engagement Conference in May in Vienna and the Ecsite (European network of science centres and museums) conference in June in Copenhagen. Projects presented included SciShops and the Star-Spotting Experiment.

A project website has now been launched for EU-Citizen.Science, a new EU project that VA is a partner in, which is creating a European platform for Citizen Science. To stay informed about project activities, you can also sign up to receive EU-Citizen.Science news.

VA’s recent publications and resources available in English

VA Barometer 2018/2019: An annual survey into the Swedish public’s general attitudes towards science and researchers.

VA information folder 2019: Information about VA and its members.

What is science? An animated YouTube clip from VA, aiming to foster understanding of how scientific progress is made.

SciShops information folder: Information about the EU SciShops project and Science Shops.

VA in social media